There was an interesting sidebar conversation in another forum recently about this and I thought this blog post from The Recording Revolution might be interesting...

http://therecordingrevolution.com/2013/11/08/is-a-1000-microphone-really-10x-better-than-a-100-mic/

If you have the proper acoustically treated room, go for the top of the line mic.

Of course, the Mic by itself is no guarantee of success, one must also consider the higher cost of a Mic Preamp worthy of the Mic's specs as well.

The other side of that coin is just as you state regarding the "10X" price thing: I don't believe cost v performance is a linear correlation.

The Law of Diminishing Return kicks in really hard and fast when the word, "Audiophile" is applied...


--Mac

depends on what $100 mic you are using.

No one ever said that $1,000 mic had to be 10x better than a $100 mic. Maybe it is 10%, 20% or 50% better (or even 2x better). or maybe it is 10x better with a certain voice or instrument. No way to really know.

I get by with a cheapo deluxe mxl v63m -- works well enough for my uses. But I could easily see myself blowing a few hundred on a vocal condenser mic and an acoustic instrument condenser mic.

Define 'better'.

The mew MAC XCLBR-10,000 Extra Large Condenser Mic is

"Mo' Bettuh".

Supplies are limited, hurry.

Act now.


--Mac

Define 'define'

Define "are".

Define "mo"!

Seriously, the Shure SM-57/58 has been around since Custer was a corpuscle and is still a popular choice for under 100 Loonies. Certainly Chet Atkins or Mark Knopfler could afford any mic but check oot what their using on major performances, 57s and 58s.

The only scenario I'd believe would be a double blind study. BS prevails in the industry.

so we gotta find us a couple of blind bluesmen and put them to the test...

depends on the singer. A $1000 mic is wasted on a $10 singer and can actually be a less then desirable product for such.It will show the truth.

It is also how you use the tools.

Jazzmandan has found the $10 singer aforementioned? That was funny.

She seemed so talented on the couch the night before...

Well, to the OP's question.... Is a $100 mic as good as a $1000 mic?

My take on this:

A few years ago (2009) I was at a songwriter's convention where there were a number of vendors set up. One such vendor was a company called Gauge Microphones.

http://www.gauge-usa.com/Gauge_Microphones/Home.html

They had their mics set up side by side with mics that were 10x as costly. You could try the mics side by side to compare. I heard no appreciable difference. On their web site they have the same side by side comparison in the form of audio clips of the same instrument or vocal recorded.

So while some very expensive mics do have certain characteristics, many less expensive mics can and do hold their own very well against them.

There is no need for a home recordists to spend thousands on a mic when a mic which sounds nearly the same is much less expensive. That money is better spent on other things that DO make a substantial difference in the studio sound.

Just my 2 cents.

Note: I had just spent $400 on a Rode NT-2A a few weeks before I heard the Gauge mics. Had I known about Gauge, I would now be an owner of a Gauge and not the Rode. I'm happy with the Rode, but I could have saved a few hundred on the Gauge and had the same quality sound.

I have often wondered about this too. My 'worst mic is a bluebottle mic which cost me £600 UK whilst I am very happy with a couple of Eagle mics costing 25 UK .
I often wonder why those classic mics of the past that are so sought after - such as the Neumann 87 command such a price (£2000 UK or more) when the technology of the past is so easily emulated or even surpassed by today's CAD tech and micro engineering. Are they just happy accidents?

Surely some of the U87 Chinese clones must be as good?

Zero

https://soundcloud.com/jaredmansfield/14-neumann-u87-shure-sm58-no/s-7PeaO

This is an interesting comparison between the flagship U87 and the ubiquitous SM58.

Antares re-released their microphone modeler, which is on sale now. It irritatingly requires an iLok, so I won't be getting it - I hate the idea of my critical software being at the mercy of one easily losable dongle. But I digress...

It obviously can't create signals where none exist. Rather, it emulates the response of a number of classic microphones to a signal. The legalese:



In the end, things like this are just a tool. If it gets you closer to the result you want, great. For $30 (on sale) it looks like a potentially useful thing to have.

My favorite mic in each of the larger studios is always their oldest RCA ribbon mic from the 40s. Never fails. Neumann sounds not as good with horns. The AKG 414 is a decent fallback.

At home, I use a ribbon mic from Beyerdynamic. I have some good Shure and Rode condensers, but the ribbon is better. Keep in mind I am only recording wind instruments. Whole different story for vocals.

For the Trumpet or Flugelhorn, if I couldn't get 'em to set up a good Ribbon Mic as per Matt's likes (and Matt's a mighty fine Horn Player, folks), my second choice would be to ask 'em if they have an EV RE-20.

The RE-20 is also great for the Lead work, the screeching, or other "powerhouse" brass horn stuff. It doesn't overload easily.

And if the job of the day is doing something ala the Meynard Ferguson/Doc Severinsen thing, you may risk damage to the Ribbon Mic - and a mighty upset Tracking Engineer.

Only bringing this up in order to point out that one type of mic may not work as well in different types of music, even with the same source instrument of voice.


--Mac

Electro voice. Good suggestion, Mac. I'm not in the 'overpowering' class of horn players like those you cite, but any trumpet can damage some mics.

Here's a related story. My wife has certain mics that engineers like to use on her voice, after lots of trying out in A/B tests. But one time, she was doing a song where she really hauled out and belted, not at all like her normal voice, and the engineer used a mic he usually uses on rock drums! Moral of the story is that even the same person may benefit from different mics, depending on the sound and style. This is why any engineer is going to have a lot to choose from. The trick is knowing which to use when.

'one type of mic may not work as well in different types of music'
'The trick is knowing which to use when.'

Yep. Good points by both Mac and Matt.

/That ain't a ribbon mic